Enjoyment and Value: Math Attitudes of Business and Elementary Education Majors.

Dickey, JoAnna Paterno; Clawson, Kenneth

This investigation compared the attitudes of business and elementary education majors on the enjoyment and value of mathematics. Fifty elementary education majors and 58 business majors participated. The mathematics attitude questionnaire contained two sections of questions: eight questions on the enjoyment of mathematics and eight questions on the value of mathematics. The attitude of enjoyment was not significantly different between the business and elementary majors. However, elementary education majors valued mathematics significantly higher than did the business majors. It was also found that both the elementary education and business majors value mathematics to a significantly higher degree than they enjoy mathematics. No significant differences were found between male and female business majors' enjoyment and value scores. (Author/YP)